


The Opposite of Everything

by celli



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Disabled Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s01e13 Recovering the Satellites, Fortune Favors challenge, M/M, Tarot Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-18 08:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21541498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celli/pseuds/celli
Summary: 6 of Swords (reversed)leave behind what you cannot carryThe Moon (reversed)make friends with what scares you10 of Cups (reversed)redefine family on your own terms
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 22
Kudos: 73
Collections: Fortune Favors: Round One— Rider-Waite-Smith





	The Opposite of Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to popflies for the beta and to nestra, missmollyetc, and havocthecat for the encouragement! Card meanings stolen with permission from angelsaves's extensive notes.
> 
> Set during and uses some dialogue from the episode "Recovering the Satellites."
> 
> Based on a 3-card tarot reading for the Fortune Favors challenge. Title from the Lowen & Navarro song.

* * *

6 of Swords (reversed)  
_leave behind what you cannot carry_

Alex was jerked out of his tense contemplation of his knuckles, of his dozenth repetition of what he wanted to say, by the door opening, letting the thunder and rain in too. He jumped up as Michael came through the door, wet and - oh, Christ. He jumped up, a thousand possibilities running through his head, beginning and ending with ‘ _my father_.’ “What happened?”

Michael tossed his hat on the table and followed Alex’s gaze to his shirt, which he pulled off impatiently. “I’m fine. It’s not my blood. What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you.”

“Alex, it’s a really bad time.”

“Obviously. Michael, if it’s not your blood then whose is it?”

“Okay, fine, some of it is my blood, but I’m okay.” 

And there wasn’t a wound in sight. Alex resisted the urge to grab Michael, to check him over; he hadn’t earned the right to do that. He watched Michael pull on a fresh shirt. “Whose blood is the rest, then? Are you in trouble, Guerin?”

Michael let out a choked laugh. “You have no fucking idea.”

“Is it my father?” Alex asked, his heart in his throat.

“Is it--Jesus, no, for once this isn’t about that bastard, okay?” Alex flinched back, but Michael didn’t notice; he doubled over like someone had hit him, and his eyes went wide. “I have to go!” he said, grabbing his hat and jacket. “I have to go, I have to go.” He turned to the door, then turned back. “Come back tomorrow,” he said. “We can talk then.”

“No,” Alex said.

“Alex--”

“I’m not going to just walk away if something’s wrong.”

“I don’t have time for this, and it’s _not your problem_ , okay?” Michael said.

“What if I want it to be my problem?” Alex asked.

Michael hauled Alex in by the collar of his jacket and kissed him. “Go. Home,” he said when a stunned Alex just stared at him. “Come back tomorrow.”

He slammed out of the trailer. Alex gave him the briefest of head starts and followed.

Michael didn’t try to lose Alex once, which seemed ominous, honestly. He followed the taillights of the truck out into the desert, past the Foster Ranch, up to a hill where an SUV Alex didn’t recognize was parked.

Michael was waiting for him when Alex got out. “Do you ever listen?” he demanded.

“We’ve had this conversation,” Alex said.

“Fine.” Michael pulled out a handgun. “Your dad taught you to shoot, right? Or basic training?”

“Both,” Alex said, taking it from him. “Who am I shooting?”

“Another alien, a more powerful one than us.” Michael’s face was grim in the shadows. “Noah.”

“Noah _Bracken_?” Alex asked blankly. “Are you shitting me?”

“He has Isobel, I don’t know where Max is, and he’s fucking powerful,” Michael said. “You’d better believe I’m not shitting you.”

He turned and started up the hill. Alex tightened his grip on the gun and followed. “This fucking town,” he muttered.

Alex lost sight of Michael almost immediately. He had to keep a careful eye on the slick ground, and his right leg almost slid out from under him more times than he could be bothered to count. By the time he got to the opening at the top, he was in that peculiar state of focus that only pain could bring, every muscle aimed at getting in there and doing whatever had to be done next.

Max Evans very nearly ran into him on his way out. Alex saw him coming just in time to flatten himself against the rocky outcropping nearest him, and Max rushed right on by, his gaze fixed on something in the storm clouds above them. Alex hurried into the entrance in the hill Max had come out of.

* * *

The Moon (reversed)  
_make friends with what scares you_

“Michael, Michael, Michael,” Noah was saying as Alex came to a halt just before the inner entrance to the cave. “Glad to see you got my little message.”

“Izzy,” Michael said hoarsely.

“She’s just taking a little nap.” Alex didn’t know Noah well at all, but this taunting, cruel tone seemed a million miles from the affable, gentle man he’d seen at the reunion doting on Isobel. “She’ll wake up when I need her. Probably.”

Alex chanced a quick glance into the cave. Michael was standing over Noah Bracken as Noah pushed himself up. Despite his position of power, something in Michael’s stance looked defensive, and despite the blood running down his temple, Noah looked completely unconcerned.

“What’s your line now, bro? Gonna tell me I’m not getting out of here alive?” Noah laughed, and Alex tightened his grip on his gun.

Unexpectedly, Michael said, “You know I was trying to save your life, right?”

“Yeah, I’m sure you wanted only good things for me,” Noah shot back.

“You promised to tell us where we came from! Why we’re here! Just because Max is an idiot with no interest in our past doesn’t make me one.”

Noah laughed again. It got creepier every time, Alex decided. “Yeah, he’s going to wish he hadn’t been that closed off to it, but by then it won’t be my problem anymore.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Michael asked.

Alex missed the next thing Noah said because he was watching his hands flex. When they moved suddenly, Alex darted into the cave before they could finish their movement and fired three quick shots. Noah turned and, with a wave, blasted all three bullets, the gun, and Alex himself back against the wall, but the distraction was enough, Alex could see even as he was blown backwards. Michael had been bent over, clutching at his chest, but stood up straight and unharmed, calling Alex’s name.

“Goddammit!” Noah said, and rushed past Alex out of the cave. 

Michael knelt beside Alex. “Are you--”

“Go,” Alex said. “I’m a’right.” He didn’t mention his rapidly darkening field of vision.

‘I’ll be right back,” Michael said.

Alex tried to smile reassuringly.

Michael looked less than reassured, but hurried out. 

Alex let the world go dark.

* * *

10 of Cups (reversed)  
_redefine family on your own terms_

“You do realize that my romantic troubles now officially trump your flimsy little closet, right?”

Alex woke up slowly to the sound of Michael and Isobel bickering. It didn’t hurt as much as he was expecting. He lay still, trying to figure out how bad things were. The thing was, though - nothing hurt as badly as it should. The fingers combing through his hair didn’t catch on the bump that absolutely should have been on the back of his head, and his head barely hurt at all resting on Michael’s lap. Even his leg, still strapped to his prosthesis, had stopped aching.

A thought came to him and he put his hand over Michael’s hand in his hair - Michael’s left hand. “Oh,” he said.

“You’re awake,” Michael said, looking down at him.

“Nope, still dreaming,” Alex said, smiling and wriggling a little bit further into Michael’s lap. “‘Cause nothing hurts and my dad never hit you.”

He could feel Michael hold his breath and then let it out in a long sigh. “Max healed us,” he said quietly. “That’s why you don’t hurt.”

“Go back to sleep, honey,” Isobel said, and Alex drifted off.

When he woke again, he had Michael’s jacket for a pillow and Michael’s voice echoing in his ears. _And I love him. I probably always will. But lately that love just hurts._

“Michael,” he murmured and climbed to his feet.

Michael wasn’t at his trailer, but Alex didn’t have anything to do but sit in the shade and try to piece together what had happened.

Finally, Michael’s truck rolled in. Alex stood and centered his weight carefully, kept his chin up. Michael swung out of the truck glare first. “What,” he demanded.

“Are you all right?” Alex asked. “You were gone when I woke up.”

“I am one hundred percent _not_ all right,” Michael said flatly. “Max is on a power trip, Noah is dead and Isobel and I just discovered his creepy stalker cave complete with - with creepy stalker stuff, I watched you get beat up like hell last night, and I just spent half an hour sitting in the parking lot of the Wild Pony trying to make myself go in! But every time I tried, I would see--you almost died.”

“So? Are you required to save yourself for me now?” Alex spread his hands wide. “Nobody’s got you tied down. You could go back any time you wanted.”

“I know I could,” Michael snapped, stalking closer to Alex.

“Maria’s great.”

“I know she’s great.”

“Then?” Alex asked. “I’m trouble, she’s not. I might not be a genius like you, Guerin, but I can do basic math.”

Michael made a noise under his breath that sounded more like a growl than anything else. He yanked Alex close - and off balance - and into a hard, punishing kiss. Alex let him, holding on tight, until finally Michael pulled back. 

“You came here yesterday for something,” Michael said.

It seemed like a million years ago. “Yeah,” Alex said quietly, then louder as he built up more courage. “I came to tell you that I shouldn’t have left you behind when I enlisted.”

“You - okay,” Michael said.

“I could stand here and tell you that I didn’t want to leave, but I did. After what my dad did to you, I I just - I - I wanted to be the kind of person who won battles. It felt good.” Alex made himself look Michael in the eye. “But now I, I look in the mirror and I - I don’t even see _myself_ sometimes. I see my father. I’m still fighting his battles. Not mine.”

Michael shook his head, his expression stricken. “Alex, no.”

“All my family has ever done is hurt yours. All _I_ have ever done is hurt you.”

Michael reached out to Alex, pausing when Alex flinched back. “You might piss me off doing it, but all you’ve ever done is try to protect me.”

“Well, I’m a fucking failure at that,” Alex muttered under his breath.

Michael reached out again, and this time cupped Alex’s face in his hands. “I distinctly recall you telling me that _I_ was your family not that long ago.”

Alex felt sick. “It’s fine, Michael. You don’t have to make me feel better.”

“Not in my skill set,” Michael said. But when he kissed Alex this time, something unknotted inside Alex.

He slid unsteady hands up to outline Michael’s face in return. “I’m tired of hurting you,” he said. “But I’m tired of leaving you.”

“Maybe, maybe stop doing that,” Michael said. Alex caught just the slightest hint of a smile.

“Michael--” he started.

Michael stopped him with a kiss. “Max and Isobel keep telling me to look forward, not back. Do you think we could ever do that?”

“I want to,” Alex said. “Tell me you want to.”

Michael kissed him again in response, and Alex fell into it, into Michael.


End file.
